The present invention relates to an arrangement for the automatic feeding of objects to and grouping them on a selectively arranged assembly surface on a flat base supporting the objects, said arrangement comprising
(a) means to intermittently move and provide for the stepwise advance of the said flat base, PA1 (b) means to advance the objects intended to be fed and grouped, said means including means to stop the advance of the objects when they have reached the correct feeding position, PA1 (c) means to reciprocatingly feed said objects, by means of which the object or objects, having reached the feeding position, can be advanced towards the said base, the said feeding means being adapted so that from a rear position it can perform on the one hand a shorter feeding stroke substantially corresponding to the length of an object in the direction of feed and, on the other hand a longer feeding stroke, in the course of which the feeding means, while at the same time introducing the objects to said base which have been grouped during the shorter feeding strokes, is made to move from the said rear end position at least up to the side edge of the said selectively arranged assembly surface.
In the distribution of such objects as e.g. milk packages or other packing units from the producer to the retailer, use is frequently made of non-returnable transport packing material of a type which in principle consists of a base plate or a tray of e.g. corrugated paper, onto which plate or into which tray a number of packing units are placed in close stacking. Often, though not necessarily, the packages and the base plate are held together by means of an enveloping plastic shrink film which retains the packages in stacked configuration, so that the collective packages or transport packages can be handled in a practical manner, without individual packages falling off their stacking base.
Automatic arrangements for the forming of such transport or collecting packages have been known for a long time, and they are practically all based on the principle that the flat base piece or blank, which can be made up to a tray, is advanced to a position in front of a feeding device, by means of which one or more packing containers are simultaneously pushed in and grouped on the base which, when filled with packing containers, is transported further for wrapping with shrink film or for the folding up of the tray edges. However, it has been found that this packing or wrapping procedure is slow, or at least is not utilized to full capacity, since the time period between the completion of a collecting package and the supply of a new flat assembly base is wholly unutilized and ineffective. Since this period constitutes a relatively important part of the whole production cycle, it has been found that the production capacity can be substantially improved by use of the arrangement of the invention, which arrangement is characterized in that the distance between the feeding means, when said means is in its rear end position, and the near edge line of the supporting base exceeds twice the length of the said shorter feeding strokes, and that the feeding means is adapted to perform at least one feeding stroke while one of the said flat bases is advanced and brought into position for the said objects to be introduced.